What is it like - being a Tester / QA?

If you have opened this article and read this far, then you are most likely a Tester. If not also, Welcome to the show!

What made me write an article about this?

Having more than a decade of testing experience, even now when I get a call from a few of my friends’, "Oh! Why can’t you take up some courses in the latest technologies and shift your career from QA?". This question never changed from the day 1 of my career till now.

When I look back, I have to accept I was an accidental QA professional. After I became one, I never regretted that. I love my job as a tester and am passionate about it.

As my mentor always says, being a tester is a built-in quality of a human. Will you ever buy a product if it comes with a caption "Built by world-class innovative technologists but never tested"? If the answer is "YES", then this article is not for you. You are good to leave :-)

How do I do testing?

Whenever I get a feature to test, I start with happy paths and execute the tests as planned. I have never stopped testing, once after my tests in the excel got over. My brain continues the processing with various permutations, and I keep doing some exploratory testing. As we know, there is no code possible with zero defects, this exploratory testing gives more possibilities to identify the gaps. My processing never stops even if I close my laptop. The tricky part is identifying the repro steps of a defect when I do exploratory testing. I must recollect the entire steps that I have done earlier. I always believe there is no such status as Not Reproducible defect. The difference between the state of the components is the key here.

?Note: My focus here is not explaining about various testing techniques, test strategies etc. There are limitless resources available already.?

Is rapport possible between DEV & QA?

Throughout my career, every developer I worked with is equally passionate about their code/feature. They always extended their support while identifying the root cause of the issues. All our hot discussions have been healthy so far. I always believe the relationship between developer and QA reciprocates based on the passion towards quality. If QA and developer understands that both work for the same goal, there is no way there are any conflicts.

?Is QA job boring?

"How can you do the same testing repeatedly? It's so boring" No one ever gets bored asking this repetitive question to me. The answer goes back to my mentor's point. Aren’t we validating our car every single time before we go for a long drive, irrespective of the manufacturing year, price and its best features? To make customers happy and safe, these repetitions are inevitable.?

?What makes a better QA as BEST?

• Passion: QA themselves should be convinced of the need of their importance. To make things better is the driving force. Be adaptive to the latest tools/technologies and process improvements. Always be ready to go for the extra mile for the quality. Your passion not only drives you, but also your entire team involved in the journey.
• Openness: Be always ready for the discussion with open mindedness. There is always a reason why anything is done in a certain way. If "WHY" is known from both sides, it is easy to make the next better-quality move.
• Curiosity: Have as many "What If" questions as possible during feature discussions, reviews, and testing. This opens a lot of doors.

This entire article is based on my own experience as a Tester. Would love to hear your experiences and story.